Overview

The main topics pursued in this volume are based on empirical insights derived from Germanic: logical and typological dispositions about aspect-modality links. These are probed in a variety of non-related languages. The logically establishable links are the following: Modal verbs are aspect sensitive in the selection of their infinitival complements – embedded infinitival perfectivity implies root modal reading, whereas embedded infinitival imperfectivity triggers epistemic readings. However, in marked contexts such as negated ones, the aspectual affinities of modal verbs are neutralized or even subject to markedness inversion. All of this suggests that languages that do not, or only partially, bestow upon full modal verb paradigms seek to express modal variations in terms of their aspect oppositions. This typological tenet is investigated in a variety of languages from Indo-European (German, Slavic, Armenian), African, Asian, Amerindian, and Creoles. Seeming deviations and idiosyncrasies in the interaction between aspect and modality turn out to be highly rule-based.

Full Product Details

Author:   Werner Abraham (University of Vienna) ,  Elisabeth Leiss (University of Munich)
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   79
Weight:   0.935kg
ISBN:  

9789027229922

ISBN 10:   9027229929
Pages:   422
Publication Date:   26 June 2008
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

1. List of contributors; 2. Preface; 3. Introduction: Aspect-modality interfaces and interchanges across languages (by Abraham, Werner); 4. General; 5. On the logic of generalizations about cross-linguistic aspect-modality links (by Abraham, Werner); 6. The silent and aspect-driven patterns of deonticity and epistemicity: A chapter in diachronic typology (by Leiss, Elisabeth); 7. Propositional aspect and the development of modal inferences in English (by Ziegeler, Debra); 8. Towards an understanding of the progressive form in English: The Imperative as a heuristic tool (by Frajzyngier, Zygmunt); 9. Epistemic modality and aspect contingency in Armenian, Russian, and German (by Gevorgyan-Ninness, Stella); 10. Slavic; 11. Indefiniteness and imperfectivity as micro-grammatical contexts of epistemicity in German-Slovene translations (by Terzan Kopecky, Carmen); 12. The connections between modality, aspectuality, and temporality in Modern Russian (by Klimonov, Wladimir D.); 13. Aspectual coercion in Bulgarian negative imperatives (by Kuehnast, Milena); 14. Russian modals mozet 'can' and dolzen 'must' selecting the imperfective in negative contexts (by Paduceva, Elena); 15. African; 16. Tense, mood, and aspect in Gungbe (Kwa) (by Aboh, Enoch O.); 17. The modal system of the Igbo language (by Uchechekwu, Chinedu); 18. Asian; 19. The aspect-modality link in the Japanese verbal complex and beyond (by Narrog, Heiko); 20. The aspect-modality link in Japanese: The case of the evaluating sentence (by Tanaka, Shin); 21. Amerindian; 22. The Lakota aspect/modality markers -kinica and tkha (by Pustet, Regina); 23. Creole; 24. A note on modality and aspect in Saramaccan (by Narrog, Heiko); 25. Diachronic; 26. Aspects of a reconstruction of form and function of modal verbs in Germanic and other languages (by Kotin, Michail L.); 27. The autopsy of a modal - insights from the historical development of German (by Mache, Jakob); 28. Index of authors; 29. Index of subjects

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